1840.] Account of Khyrpoor and the Fortress of Bukur. 1201 



and rebuilt the fort ninety* tunab, or 1350 yards in circuit. Nadir Shah is 

 said to have destroyed the works when he invaded Sind in 1747-48, but 

 they differ little at this day from the description given of them in the time 

 of Shah Hoosen. He made the wall fifteen yards high and four thick, and 

 pierced it with four gates. The Koon, SE. facing Roree, is now shut ; 

 the Kingree S. ; the Khururee N. towards Sukhur also shut ; and the Nag 

 to the N. E. ; none of the gates have outworks or barbicans, but steps are 

 cut in the rock for the convenience of obtaining water. The fort is an ir- 

 regular oval, and has sixty-one bastions of different sizes connected by an 

 embattled curtain, and the diameter, measured from the Koon to the Khu- 

 ruree gate, and from the Nag to the Kingree gate, is the same, namely 

 twenty-one tunab, or 315 yards. Hoosen Khan appointed Muhmood Khan, 

 a noble of his court, to command the fort while he travelled between Mool- 

 tan and Thutta, and it was at this period (a. h. 928) that the emperor 

 Humayoon was defeated by Sher Shah the Afghan, and fled towards Bukur. 

 When Muhmood Khan heard of his approach he hastily built an Alum 

 Punah, or outer-wall to the fort, which embraced the whole of the limestone 

 rock in the Indus, and was 125 tunab, or 1875 yards circuit, twelve yards 

 high, and four thick, with four gates opposite those on the inner wall. It 

 had seventy bastions, and two gardens called Nuzurgah and Goozrgah, 

 which are now planted with date trees. Muhmood Khan had scarcely 

 completed the defences when Humayoon arrived, and requested admittance. 

 The governor gave no answer, and closed the gates, and reduced the impe- 

 rial army to great distress for provisions. The Suyuds in Bukur pitying 

 their condition, sent the emperor a present of sixteen hundred Khurwars j- 

 of grain, which relieved the wants of his army for a time, but the garrison 

 still held out, and he was obliged eventually to raise the siege, and marched 

 to Jeysulmeer. Afterwards he withdrew to the fortress of Umurkot in the 

 desert, where the empress gave birth to the infant Akbar, a. h. 949. Hu- 

 mayoon subsequently returned to Bukur, and leaving his Wuzeers Moojir- 

 hid Khan and Moohibb Ali Khan with the army to besiege it, set out for 



* Tunab. A Tunab according to the measurement then in use was derived from 

 Arabia, and equal to fifteen yards. The following are the dimensions of the Ara- 

 bian tunab and jureb. 



6 Barley grains placed lengthwise one above the other, .. .. 1 finger- 



32 fingers, 1 ziru, 



60 Ziru, 1 tunab. 



4 Tunab, I jureb. 



Thus a jureb comprised an area of 3600 yards. 



This measure is still used in Kabool, except that only twenty-four fingers go to 

 the ziru. 



t A Khurwar is equal to about 1050 lbs. avoirdupois. 



